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In the movie The Magic Christian, you might remember how people dove into a cesspool after the dirty dollars that were thrown there. People were willing to cover themselves in excrement just for the sake of the almighty dollar. Now that the dollar is not so almighty anymore, perhaps there's a better way to be a Magic Christian.

More by Marc Cooper

To be effective, Obama's going to have to enlist some of these same centrist characters as his personal political henchmen. Appointing a bunch of progressives, as they are called, would only mean his task would be harder -- not easier. This is about getting stuff done. Not about providing feel-good therapy for a fleet of nervous-Nellie Prius pilots.

Barack Obama's election is laden with so much significance it seems an impossible task to attempt any systematic unpacking. But this much is for certain: The full impact of the Oval Office being occupied by a black man has yet to hit home.

Some experts predict the state budget will quickly become unbalanced again, thanks to a persistently bad economy. But that didn't stop self-congratulations and posturing by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic majority leaders Karen Bass and Darrell Steinberg, and Republican minority leaders Dennis Hollingsworth and Sam Blakeslee, the so-called "big five" who worked out this latest budget.

The L.A. City Council salaries are not just overinflated in an era of belt-tightening. They are only a hair below the salaries of Congress, and are higher than those of federal judges. They amount to a staggering 400 percent of Los Angeles' median household income of $46,000.

Filled with some of the most experienced business, economic policy and labor leaders in the country, Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board includes luminaries like Warren Buffett and CEO of Google. And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. We took to the streets to find out how Angelenos would vet Villaraigosa’s economic qualifications.